he setting is the fifth floor of the Q Entertainment offices in Meguro, Tokyo. It's a beautiful, warm, late-June morning, and we're about to speak with the two men who -- if they have their way -- will steer this company to greatness. Joining us are Q's legendary producer (and all-around nice guy) Tetsuya Mizuguchi, who in a past life presided over games like Sega Rally, Rez, and Space Channel 5. Mizuguchi is an interesting person, famous for his love of club music and even more famous for turning that love into the focus of many of his games, from the all-around quirkiness and camp of Space Channel 5 to the hardcore shooter-meets-karma experiment of Rez to the cascade of block-dropping beats found in the everyman sensation, Lumines. While the critical kudos have never been lacking, commercial success evaded Rez and Space Channel 5 (although the sequel to SC5 fared fairly well in Japan).

It wasn't until Mizuguchi married club sounds to a game everyone can play (Lumines) that the formula found traction. Since disbanding United Game Artists (his internal development team at Sega) and breaking off with a handful of Sega veterans to create Q Entertainment, Mizuguchi and Q CEO Shuji Utsumi (a well-spoken Sega and SCEA veteran with a huge smile and an enthusiasm to match Mizuguchi's) have been working on keeping the momentum up, announcing shortly before the Electronic Entertainment Expo that they would be bringing Lumines II (PSP), Lumines Live (Xbox 360), Lumines Plus (PS2), Every Extend Extra (PSP), and Disney Meteos (DS) to store shelves in 2006. As we visited them in Tokyo, we would learn that they also have two Q'ed-up versions of lesser-known WonderSwan puzzler Gunpey in the works, for both PSP and DS. And let us not forget about their upcoming Xbox 360 brawler Ninety-Nine Nights. So clearly Q's services are in demand. But how does one little company manage so many projects? When is enough too much? And how will it succeed as a small independent developer where so many others have struggled? Read on and learn.